SUSD toughens truancy policy

STOCKTON - Multiagency cooperation and an influx of new cash are putting teeth into battling truancy in the Stockton Unified School District this year.

Zachary K. Johnson

STOCKTON - Multiagency cooperation and an influx of new cash are putting teeth into battling truancy in the Stockton Unified School District this year.

In a letter sent to students and parents last week, Superintendent Steve Lowder and San Joaquin County District Attorney Jim Willett reminded adults that parents and guardians of truant students can face fines of up to $2,000 and a year in jail.

It goes on to tell older students that, for them, truancy enforcement can mean community service or the loss of driving privileges.

The laws are not new, but this year, prosecutors will be available to enforce them, though county and school officials said they didn't expect prosecution to be common.

"The only parents or students we're going to see going before a judge will be the worst of the worst," said Dee Alimbini, Stockton Unified's administrator for child welfare and attendance. "It is going to send a new message and add a new tone of seriousness we haven't utilized before."

The changes come with increased coordination among the school district, prosecutors and the county Board of Supervisors. It's an attempt to keep students in school today, where they can learn how to be successful and avoid committing crimes tomorrow. The changes are focusing only on Stockton Unified, though officials said it doesn't have to stop there. There is also a plan to increase involvement with San Joaquin County Superior Court.

The school district sent out the letters Wednesday. Next, the district plans to use its notification system to reach the community with a recorded message from Lowder and Willett.

Legal action for truancy can play a role in increasing attendance, but it should be the last - not the first - resort, said Hedy Chang, an expert on absenteeism and director of Attendance Works, a national initiative to address chronic absenteeism.

"The vast majority of parents will respond to positive messaging," she said.

Stockton Unified has a thorough system in place that the changes will strengthen, Alimbini said.

It starts with addressing challenges families face that sometimes stand between students and attending school. Intervention includes everything from home visits to counseling to group meetings about the importance of showing up for school, she said. "Every day your child misses, the more (the child) falls behind. When (parents) see what the ramifications are, attendance tends to improve."

Parents get a letter from the district after three unexcused absences and a second after six. When the third letter comes, at nine absences, it is considered a habitual problem. Attendance tends to improve after the first letter goes out.

Last school year, the district sent out 17,000 first letters, according to the district. More than two-thirds of the students improved their attendance after the first letter.

The district's attendance rate has been climbing, reaching more than 94 percent last school year, Alimbini said.

The new effort will focus more on the lower grades, because increasing attendance at that level can increase chances those children will learn the skills needed to get to - and finish - high school.

And finishing high school matters for the city. High school dropouts are 31/2 times more likely to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated than people who graduate, the District Attorney's Office said in a news release issued by county Supervisor Carlos Villapudua about the partnership.

"Truancy will lead into misdemeanors and will eventually become our next felons. For us, we want to be able to put a stop to it," said Villapudua, who represents a district including central and southern Stockton. He said he has been talking with the District Attorney's Office for the past two years about how the county government could help with truancy.

In June, the board approved the county government's $1.33 billion budget, then tweaked the spending plan to put an additional $500,000 into the District Attorney's Office budget, enough to pay for three prosecutors and two investigators.

It's unclear how much attention prosecutors will pay to truancy. Willett did not return a call Monday.

Villapudua said the District Attorney's Office committed to use some of the new resources to address truancy. And there's movement toward creating a new truancy court, too, he said, that could work like courts for drug offenders, where deferred sentences won't be served if behavior changes.

"We're just here to be, basically, an extra tool. And let the parents know ... there's a hammer there. There's a law, there's an obligation to keep your kids in school."